Martin Muleya.
Mutare, Zimbabwe (News of The South) -The dice has been cast for the two abandoned matches in the less fashionable Eastern Region Division One league as they will be played this Saturday.
Buffaloes will lock horns wih Tenax Fc at Vengere stadium and the match will kick off at 3pm.
Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service outfit Tenax Fc are leading the pack with 57 points while military men Buffaloes are on second position with 53 points while Mutare City are on fourth position and Masvingo United on the distant fifth position with 42 and 43points respectively.
In a letter dated 07 October 2019 and directed to all Eastern Region Division One clubs, which this publication has in possession, week 27 matches have all been postponed to allow outstanding fixtures to be fulfilled.
“On behalf of the Zifa Eastern Region executive please be advised that all week 27 fixtures have been postponed and are scheduled to be played on the weekend of 26-27 October 2019.
“The postponement has been necessitated by the need to allow two outstanding fixtures between Masvingo United and Mutare City Rovers Fc and Tenax vs Buffaloes to be played so that all teams are at par in terms of matches played as we near the end of our season.
“May i also take this opportunity to advise that all the clubs in the top five positions on the log standing shall be required to play their matches at the same time on a particular day as advised by the office,” read the letter signed by Secretary General Farai Rutsvara and copied to board chairman Davison Muchena and his deputy Wisdom Simba.
However Buffaloes camp are not happy with the decision taken by the Eastern Region football governing body’s verdict on their abandoned tie against fellow title contenders Tenax.
The match between the two sides was abandoned in the 93rd minute after Chimanimani-based referee, Polane Chomunoda, awarded a penalty to the army side.
The two sides were tied 1-1 when Tenax goalkeeper brought down a Buffaloes’ player in the box.
The penalty was taken to make it 2-1 in favour of Buffaloes before the Chimanimani-based match official made a U-turn and raised his hand to disallow the goal.
This left players from both sides confused.
Chomunoda then decided to give a direct kick to Tenax FC, which led to protests from fans who invaded the pitch.
This led to the abandonment of the match.
In their ruling the Davison Muchena led executive, dismissed Buffaloes’ appeal.
“The Zifa Eastern Region executive committee wishes to inform your esteemed office that your appeal against the decision made by the executive committee on the abandoned league match played between yourselves (Buffaloes) and Tenax FC which on 27 July 2019 lacked merit and was, however, dismissed. The match is, however rescheduled to be played at a date and venue to be advised by the office,” reads part of the letter to Buffaloes.
Buffaloes organising secretary Aaron Dzvete feels his side was supposed to have been called for a meeting before a judgement was passed.
“We feel hard-done by the committee, but we will fulfil the fixture. We appealed and we paid the $2000 appeal fee. We were hoping that the committee would call us so that we present our case. We were not called
for the meeting which we wanted, and instead a judgement was passed in our absence. We are disappointed,” fumed Dzvete.
Tenax gaffer Blessing Madombi maintains that they will not lose sleep over Buffaloes’ complaint as they are slowly becoming cry babies but they will exert their energies on posting positive results.
“We want to concentrate on our result that is the biggest issue other than looking at other teams’ results. In the remaining games we are facing we want to work on scoring more goals. Against Buffaloes we face an equally competent team so we just need to make a proper game plan. We have been posting good results on most of our home assignments and that should not change when we play Buffaloes in their own backyard. We will treat that match as a home match for us,” noted Madombi.
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